Spirits undampened, the resilient Marshallese people joined Majuro's Public Works crews in clean-up brigades, moving tons of rocks and debris dumped by the tidal action.

Long before the Government declared a State of Emergency, churches and NGO's stepped-up efforts to provide food and shelter to 600 displaced by the flooding. It will take months to repair damaged homes.

Local businesses were determined to maximize recovery efforts in preparation for the scheduled JAL charter of Japanese tourists, making sure the Annual New Year's Eve Block Party in downtown Majuro was still "a go."

Farther north, at Roi-Namur, on Kwajalein Atoll, waves had rolled over the reefs, topping the sea walls and berms,...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, December 31, 2008) – The Niue Government will be seeking New Zealand’s help to re-open its fish processing plant when the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, visits the island for talks next week.

Mr McCully wants to discuss the Fiji situation with Niue’s Premier, Toke Talagi, who is the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, ahead of next month’s emergency summit in Port Moresby.

But Mr Talagi says they also want to ensure New Zealand aid money is better applied on the island so that the economy can be developed.

A key part of this will be assisting the fish processor, Reef Fishing, to take its plant out of mothballs.

[PIR editor’s note: Reef Fishing Group closed its operations on Niue in 2007. But the company, citing jobs it provides on Niue, has since...

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Solomon Star, Dec. 31, 2008) – America’s large cargo air transport service, United Parcel Service (UPS), has decided not to ship anymore live dolphins from the Solomon Islands in the future.

In a letter written by UPS to the Animal Welfare Institute obtained by Solomon Star; the airline’s CEO Scott Davis said they will to accept any more future charters to transport live dolphins.

UPS made the decision following pressure from animal welfare groups for the carrier to abide by its policy, which is not to transport wild and live animals.

The airline owned the cargo jet that transported seven live dolphins early this month from the Solomon Islands to the Philippines.

When contacted through email, Director of the Earth Islands Institute based in the United States Mark Berman said they have shown their disagreement with UPS, which the company respectfully adhered to.

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (Vanuatu Daily Post, January 19, 2009) - The Daily Post publisher Marc Neil - Jones has been assaulted by members of Correctional Services in a nasty incident at the newspaper office on Saturday at about 12.45pm that left him with a suspected broken nose, bruised eye and abrasions.

The 51 year old Vanuatu citizen was by himself in his office when a truck pulled up with angry officers allegedly under the influence of alcohol working with Correctional Services at the prison.

They stormed into the office and accused Neil- Jones of causing the dismissal of Joshua Bong as Acting Director of Correctional Services and demanding to know who was going to look after the prisoners now.

A shaken Neil - Jones advised police, "One of them was well built, strong and with a belly wearing shorts and a singlet punched me in the eye and nose and hit me four...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, December 31, 2008) – Singapore has been warned by Mexico’s Congress not to accept bottlenose dolphins exported from Solomon Islands.

The Solomon Star newspaper reports that the warning came after the recent shipment of bottlenose dolphins from the Solomons to the Philippines, which will be later transferred to Singapore, as well as another consignment due to be shipped soon.

The Chairman of the Mexican Congress, Committee of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries, Senator Jorge Legorreta, wrote to the Singapore Minister for National Development, Mah Bau Tan, cautioning about the planned export.

In the letter, which was copied to the Solomons cabinet, Mr Legorreta said negative publicity surrounding the export of 28 bottlenose dolphins to Mexico from Solomon Islands in 2003 tainted his country’s reputation.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, December 31, 2008) – A law and order advocacy group in Lae City in Papua New Guinea has called on the Morobe Provincial Government to re-introduce vagrancy laws in the province.

The Morobe Community Welfare and Justice group made the call during a peace reconciliation ceremony between two warring Highlands groups last week.

The Post Courier reports the ceremony was aimed at ending ethnic violence between Western Highlands and Eastern Highlands people at the Four Mile area outside Lae two weeks ago.

Three people were killed and properties worth thousands of kina destroyed.

During the ceremony, Western Highlands’ spokesman and local businessman Fred Wak called on Morobe political leaders to re-introduce the Vagrancy Act to control the flow of people into the city.

Mr Wak also said the escalating law and order problems in the city are...

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp., Dec. 31, 2008) – A Ministry Foreign Affairs officer who in November caused an international incident in Taiwan when he damaged a store and injured three policemen during a drunken fight has made a public apology.

The apology was published in today's Solomon Star.

William Marau who was in Taiwan to attend a training program said he was deeply sorry for his very unprofessional behaviour.

He said he had taken too much alcohol and misbehaved to a degree where be became aggressive to personnel of the military college where he attended a training course.

Mr. Marau said language and communication difficulties might have led to a woman from the store calling for police which led to his arrest and the punches he might have have made to one of the three police officers.

He said they all fell over a rack of magazines in the store which was...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, December 31, 2008) – The passage of the Minimum Wages Board determination on Jan 31 will be a milestone for Papua New Guinea after 16 years of living in poverty, PNG Trade Union Congress (PNGTUC) and Public Employees Association president Michael Malabag said yesterday.

He said replacing the current PGK74.40 [US$28.96] a fortnight minimum wage with the proposed PGK201.60 [US$78.49] would signal a victory for the workers.

A memorandum of agreement on the matter between the Government, PNG Employers Federation and PNGTUC is scheduled for deliberation next month.

"After 16 years, workers deserve better and the proposed increase would be a real bonus to many Papua New Guineans who had worked tirelessly at the expense of cunning employers," Mr Malabag said.

He said the board’s decision would also restore justice, dignity and respect for ordinary workers....

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.